Cooking with gas and charcoal grills may be done with a combination of convective heat, from hot gases of combustion, and radiant heat, from surfaces heated by such gases in various ways. Cooking with predominately radiant heat (e.g., in excess of 50% or 60% or 70% of the total heat available) at a plane just below or just above the food support element can have benefits with many types of food and cooking styles. However, it is also true that some types of cooking, for example slow cooking with exposure to smoke, may be preferred with less radiant heat than 50%, 60%, or 70%. Previously, products were designed and manufactured without consideration of allowing a user to alter the ratio of convective to radiative heat on the same cooking device.
What is needed is a system and method for addressing the above, and related, issues.